This kid just had the swim of her life and I am so proud to be her teammate
Lillia King
i grew up in the middle of middle class in west los angeles. attending school on the westside, i had friends whose families had tremendous wealth. i spent time at their amazing houses and saw the freedom and opportunity that comes with wealth. this included extensive travel and recreational activities such as skiing. i saw my contemporaries being provided luxury cars. it was a different world.
when i was asked by my friends to join in their activities, ie skiing, i became resentful. i could not neither afford them or find value in them. i felt that they asked me to spend money on something i could neither afford or want to do. i was content living within my moderate means. the imposition of spending money i did not have was a psychic wound. it hurt.
my bad attitude lasted for many years. i finally had a revelation and decided to be happy for them, happy for their wealth, happy for the freedom they had because of their wealth. i felt happy with my situation and had hopes that one day i would have wealth and the opportunities associated with it. a huge emotional weight was lifted off my shoulders. a negativity in my life became a positive.
thus, a recent event at the olympics caught my interest. while well deserved attention is being paid to the 17 year old gold medal olympian, ms. lydia jacoby, who shocked the world in the 100 meter breaststroke at the tokyo olympics.
the story of import is that of ms. lillia king. she too was a medal winner in the event, a bronze. she, more importantly, won the gold medal for positive attitude. ms. king both recognized the greatness of ms. jacoby’s performance and she shared in ms. jacoby’s happiness. she taught the lesson that we can be happy sharing in other’s success. thus, ms. king had no need to covet the gold medal or harbor ill feelings over her defeat.
ms. king, for the record, is a great winner as well. prior to the event, she had won multiple gold medal and set multiple world records.
be well!!
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